Lebanon maritime traffic resumes

Israelis lift 8-week blockade of seaports

September 09, 2006|By Edward Cody, The Washington Post

BEIRUT — Israel lifted its 8-week-old maritime blockade of Lebanon on Friday, the United Nations announced, and within hours a gleaming white ship pulled into Beirut harbor carrying a load of appliances.

The reopening of sea lanes to Lebanon came one day after Israel lifted its blockade of air traffic, completing the end to suffocating restrictions imposed when war broke out between Israel and the Hezbollah militia July 12.

"The blockade has seriously undermined the Lebanese economy, and it is high time for it to end so as to allow the people to get back to their businesses," said French Gen. Alain Pellegrini, the commander of UN forces in Lebanon.

The head of the Beirut International Chamber of Navigation, Elias Zakhour, said six cargo ships were bound for the Lebanese capital carrying cars and containers of other imported goods. The lineup reflected Beirut's role as a hub for imports and exports in the region, a major component of the Lebanese economy that withered for two months while the battle raged.

Israel said it imposed the blockade to prevent arms shipments to Hezbollah, the militant Shiite Muslim movement that battled Israeli forces for 34 days in the rugged hills along the Lebanon-Israel border. The war ended Aug. 14. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert relaxed the restrictions only on assurances from the UN that European ships and soldiers would join Lebanese forces in making sure the Hezbollah militia cannot receive supplies from abroad.

For now, Israeli patrol boats are turning over surveillance duties to Italian ships in the Mediterranean off Lebanon, Israeli and UN officials said. French and Greek navy ships also have promised to help patrol the area for an interim period. In the long term, the German navy has shouldered responsibility for working with the Lebanese military to guarantee no arms reach Hezbollah.

Olmert announced Wednesday that he would lift the air and sea blockade Thursday evening. Unrestricted commercial airline flights to Beirut resumed as expected, but the sea blockade was maintained while Israeli officials sought additional assurances from the UN. More coordination took place Friday morning, and the commander of an Italian task force assumed responsibility for the patrols Friday afternoon, a UN spokesman said.

Israeli officials said the airline flights were allowed to resume because German officials were on duty at Beirut's Rafiq Hariri International Airport monitoring air freight traffic. But the Lebanese minister for public works and transportation, Mohammed Safadi, said the Germans were providing only technical assistance and that customs matters were the responsibility of Lebanese authorities. Similarly, he said, the Italian ships would be assigned to help Lebanese authorities monitor sea shipments.

A senior Lebanese official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hezbollah insisted that any European sea patrols or customs help be under the aegis of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL. As a result, the Italian ships have been baptized "the maritime UNIFIL." In any case, he said, Hezbollah officials are not worried about resupplying because their arms come mainly from Iran via Syria, and smuggling is an old tradition along the long, porous Lebanon-Syria border.

With that in mind, Israel had demanded that German soldiers join Lebanese army and internal security forces personnel along the border. But Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, reflecting Hezbollah's concerns, refused, saying the Germans would provide only equipment and training to the Lebanese.